Young foot­ballers rep­re­sent re­gion

The Tararua Ju­nior Foot­ball Hub be­came a tri­an­gu­lar com­pe­ti­tion in 2015, when Pahiatua Foot­ball Club joined neigh­bours Woodville AFC and Dan­nevirke Sport Club.

Since its in­cep­tion the Tararua hub has pro­duced a num­ber of Manawatu¯ rep­re­sen­ta­tives, but in 2018 a record num­ber of 12 club play­ers ac­cepted an in­vi­ta­tion to Cen­tral Foot­ball Manawatu¯ ’s Fed­er­a­tion Tal­ent Cen­tre.

The FTC pro­gramme in­volves a big com­mit­ment with train­ing held from Au­gust to the end of Novem­ber at Ash­hurst Do­main. Tour­na­ment days are held with Whanganui, Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay and Gis­borne.

“It’s been ex­tremely sat­is­fy­ing for the Tararua foot­ball clubs to see our young tal­ent on dis­play and reaf­firms that play­ing in a lo­cal com­pe­ti­tion does not limit the young player’s pro­gres­sion within foot­ball,” Tararua Recre­ation Ad­vi­sor Kelly Chris­tensen, vol­un­teer man­ager for Manawatu¯ FTC 14 Girls team said. “The num­ber of Tararua girls in the FTC pro­gramme has also been pleas­ing, as the dis­trict clubs have worked hard to en­cour­age more girls to give foot­ball a go.”